A Microwave CMOS/Microfluidics Dielectric Spectrometer for Biosensing and Flow Cytometry

Rapid cell identification using microfluidics and CMOS technology has the potential to reduce costs and testing time, and perhaps enable point-of-care diagnostics. In this talk, I will discuss a CMOS spectrometer at GHz frequencies using near-field sensing for single-cell biophysical analysis in high-throughput Lab-on-Chip flow cytometry setting. The aim is to enable large-scale studies on the wideband electromagnetic signatures at cellular and molecular levels to open its way for real-time and label-free sensing. I will present the techniques for enabling highly sensitive (noise floor < 1aFrms) dielectric sensors with experiments on large-scale cellular characterization. In addition, the mechanical property (elasticity) of the cells is studied in the same platform by incurring deformation using microfluidic hydrodynamic stretching. System can also be tailored for molecular sensing with experiments performed on glucose and protein solutions.